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Assessing the Contributions of Urban Light Rail Transit to the Sustainable Development of Addis Ababa

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sustainability Article Assessing the Contributions of Urban Light Rail Transit to the Sustainable Development of Addis Ababa Jackson Sekasi 1,* and Mauro Luiz Martens 2 1 Railway Engineering Civil Infrastructure Department, Addis Ababa Institute of Technology, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa 1000, Ethiopia 2 Production Engineering Department, Polytechnic School, University of São Paulo, Butantã, São Paulo 05501-010, Brazil; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +251-987006422 Abstract: Many of the existing urban transport infrastructures in developing African cities are challenged by the mobility demands of their ever-increasing population and increased vehicle capacity. To address these transportation challenges, the Federal government of Ethiopia through the Ethiopian Railway Corporation (ERC) constructed and operates the Addis Ababa light rail transit (AA-LRT). Currently, many other African cities are following in action. This study aims to assess the contributions to sustainable development derived from the services of urban light rail in Addis Ababa. Cross-sectional quantitative research by means of a structured questionnaire survey considering key variables of social, economic, and environmental transport sustainability dimensions was conducted in Addis Ababa. Dimension-wise, the collected data was then analysed in order to measure the contributions made by AA-LRT and to identify the relations amongst each considered variable and each sustainability dimension. The findings of the study indicate a high level of perceived contributions of the economic sustainability dimension as compared to social and environmental sustainability. The study suggests an improved consideration of the environmental Citation: Sekasi, J.; Martens, M.L. and social dimension for a holistic approach to transport sustainability of the city. Assessing the Contributions of Urban Light Rail Transit to the Sustainable Keywords: sustainability; railway transport; sustainable development; urban rail; Addis Ababa light Development of Addis Ababa. rail transit; transport infrastructure; sustainable urban transport Sustainability 2021, 13, 5667. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su13105667 Academic Editor: Marilisa Botte 1. Introduction Addis Ababa city, similar to many of Africa’s rapidly growing metropolises is chal- Received: 19 April 2021 lenged by the need for modern urban mobility systems to answer calls of an inefficient Accepted: 10 May 2021 Published: 18 May 2021 public transport service. A great percentage of the current transport system in many of these cities is almost automobile dominated [1], with the old fleet being unsustainable due Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral to excessive air and noise pollution, high cost, congestion, and safety problems, among with regard to jurisdictional claims in others. The desire to overcome these difficulties is therefore making economies advocate for published maps and institutional affil- increased effectual and sustainable solutions [2]. Since urban light railway infrastructure iations. serves as a mainstay of urban mobility in conurbations [3–5], due to its benefits such as mass transit capacity, comfortability, fast speed, safety reliability, better environmental congestion and, mitigation impacts, Addis Ababa responded by implementing an urban LRT through the city and its suburbs. Light Rail Transit (LRT) establishments are massively known to progress “sustainable Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. urban mobility policies” in and around many municipalities due to their ability in changing This article is an open access article urban surroundings together with conditions that are necessary in relation to terms of distributed under the terms and planning for their effective integration [6]. It is also notable that in discussing issues of the conditions of the Creative Commons modern economy, a transport factor must be involved due to its influences in uplifting Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// the social, environmental, and economic status [7]. By promoting the development of creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ industries and quick accessibility, which improves the standards of living, urban rail transit 4.0/). positions itself as great leverage towards urban economy. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5667. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105667 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Sustainability 2021, 13, 5667 2 of 22 This paper presents an assessment of the contributions of LRT to the sustainability of Addis Ababa in terms of development (in the perspective of sustainable transportation development). Many recent studies have been conducted to analyze the contribution of LRT to the sustainable development of several cities across the world but in consideration of Ethiopia, limited work to this effect has been conducted. LRT infrastructure delivery with minimal sustainability assessment can lead to objectionable socio-economic and environmental effects for the stakeholders [8]. Although the state of knowledge has substantially improved in recent years as a result of these studies, many questions still remain open, and new evidence is clearly needed [9], especially in Africa. The question that arises is: how has LRT contributed to the sustainability of Addis Ababa? A study by [10] concludes that the emergence of light rail as a new mobility system is not just a matter of creating capacity and reducing travel time but has many other rationalities attached. The authors therefore believe that one of these rationalities is the desire to achieve sustainable development. While some new LTR projects in middle income developing cities, may have limited economic and practical value [11], and some RLT project plans have been shelved mainly for financing reasons [12], many RLT operations have been a success, achieved intended objectives, and contributed to sustainability of their localities [13]. Additionally, when you consider cities that are moving towards the adoption of LRT, enough sustainability assessment has not been executed on the extensive LRT infrastructure projects. This may lead to hardships that increase costs and cause negative socio-economic and environmental consequences to the light-rail provider and the community [8]. In line with the above perspective and using formulated variables that are principal in transport sustainability, the research aims to utilize the survey method to collect perception- based responses amongst Addis Ababa residents on the contributions of AA-LRT to the sustainable development of Addis Ababa. Results from the collected data analysis will therefore be key in addressing the study question by indicating to what extent AA-RLT has contributed to sustainable development of Addis Ababa in the realm of the three dimensions; economic, social, and environmental sustainability dimensions, as coined by the Brundtland report [14,15]. The analysis will also try to understand the relationship among variables in each dimension. The paper is structured in the following format. Section2 provides a brief description of Addis Ababa city, its Light Rail Transit (AA-LRT), and sustainability approach. Then, Section3 reviews published available literature on light rail transit and sustainability. Section4 details materials and methods of the study, which includes the study duration and collection of both qualitative and quantitative data, particularly from a survey con- ducted among the residents of Addis together with data collected from ERC and other organizations. Section5 provides the results from data analysis while Section6 reports discussions of the results and deduced conclusions of the study, points out the limitations of the study and proposes directions for future research. 2. Background Addis Ababa, which houses close to 25% of the city dwellers, is the capital city of Ethiopia, the largest metropolis in the country, and among Africa’s fastest-rising cities. It is the growth engine for Ethiopia and a major pillar in the country’s vision to become a middle-income, carbon-neutral, and resilient economy by 2025 [16]. Addis Ababa light rail transit (AA-RLT) is the first light rail and rapid transit in eastern and sub-Saharan Africa. It was put into operation in 2015 by Ethiopia Railways Cooperation (ERC) which is Mandated to advance railway infrastructure and deliver commuter and cargo rail transportation services in Ethiopia [17]. It is an electrified light rail transit with 41 stations and a total length of 34.25 km of rail lines. As indicated in Figure1 below, it has two lines, one running north-south from Menelik Square to Kality (16.9 km) serving 23 stations and the other running east-west from Ayat to Tor Hailoch 17.35 (km) with the two lines sharing a 2.7 km section of the track in the city center serving 16 stations. On both lines of the Sustainability 2021, 13, 5667 3 of 22 LRT, trains cannot travel beyond 80 km/h, putting their normal operational speed at 65km/h with a maximum network designed hourly flow of 15,000 passengers per hour per direction (PPHPD) [8]. Intended to mitigate and control the increasing traffic jam in Addis Ababa, whose populace has now exceeded 5 million occupants, the light rail was built by China Railway Engineering Corporation at a hooping sum close to US$475m, and 85% of the project was financed by loans advanced from export-import (EXIM) Bank of China (https://www.railwaygazette.com/addis-ababa-light-rail-opens/41388.article (accessed on 22 January 2020). Figure 1. Operational stations along
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